HOLISTIC NURSING ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORT AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NURSING STATEMENT REGARDING HHS BUDGET PROPOSAL

Nursing Organizations Underscore Urgency of Supporting Investments in Health, Research, and Workforce

TOPEKA, KS, UNITED STATES, April 30, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- MEDIA CONTACT: ed@gahnscholars.org

This press release is written on behalf of The Global Academy of Holistic Nursing, the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation, and the American Holistic Nurses Association. It regards the reorganization and defunding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Our intent is to provide support for the American Academy of Nursing’s press release on April 17, 2025.

As indicated in the restructuring and defunding plans, Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs would be eliminated and the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) would be absorbed by the newly designed NIH Institute, defunding monies dedicated to nursing research. These changes will critically impact nursing education, disrupt ongoing research, and disallow adequate funding of new research projects.

The impact on the profession of nursing will be enormous, and as a result, the health of our society, already in a decline, will be in jeopardy. A healthy population is one of the best resources any nation can have to guarantee its future. The agencies involved in the planned reorganization provide services and funding that are essential for creating, supporting, and advancing the health and wellbeing of our nation.

While some needs are unique to specific areas of the nation, those affected by the current reorganization are essential for the wellbeing of the whole. The loss of these services and the funding will impact the wellbeing of the United States as a whole.

The changes included in the reorganization of Health and Human Services and NIH/NINR constitute unprecedented, indiscriminate and erratic changes in organization and reductions in funding that promise to threaten the future of our society in multiple ways. Some can be identified now; others will be disclosed as the consequences play out. To ensure our goal of maintaining a strong, healthy society, it is essential that all changes in federal healthcare programs:

• Incorporate consideration of these threats and consequences.
• Are undertaken with thoughtful, systematic, proactive processes that involve the scientists who are best prepared to discuss these effects, and
• Include the overall cost-benefits for society when changes occur.

Healthcare activities supported by NIH are provided by many professions. Each contributes to and is important for the wellbeing of society. Medicine addresses alterations, diseases, conditions and injuries in the bio-physical domain of humans. Over the past 20 plus years, medical research has changed our expectations of life or death when diagnosed with conditions such as HIV, cancer, and many other problems common in society. Only a few years ago, millions of people died of COVID-19; today many live with long-term effects of the disease. Much remains to be learned about these processes, what causes them, how to intervene, and how to obliterate them.

Nursing in comparison, focuses on the individual needs of holistic human beings with consideration of their perspectives on their life and related circumstances. Nursing science focuses on the care of human beings across the lifespan, in all conditions and settings. Nursing research develops evidence-based interventions and care models that address the humans’ innate need to meet the challenges and opportunities that are a part of the humans’ normal growth and development, as well as those that exist due to sickness, disease, injuries, and medical interventions such as surgery. These practices support and reinforce the humans’ inherent need to recover and heal. Holistic nurses do this by purposefully creating a trusting, healing environment that will help people activate their natural abilities, and build new resources needed to cope, adapt, recover, and heal. These caring processes, unique to Holistic Nursing, are essential in helping people during life transitions that are often stressful to negotiate and while recovering from diseases, injuries, surgical conditions, and other life-experiences. As the rate of change increases in society, these situations emerge at an exponential rate. Research is essential for nursing to understand and improve their caring-healing practices that help people cope, adapt, recover and heal—outcomes necessary to build resiliency. Resilience is a trademark of a healthy person; resilient people are needed for a healthy nation.

With these thoughts, we urge our national leaders to ensure strong educational programs and continuity of clinical and critical studies that address our nation's most pressing health needs for all people by committing to:

• Continuation of the NINR as an independent NIH institute, led by nurses
• Transparency regarding the rationale for restructuring decisions and anticipated impact on nursing science
• Consultation with nursing organizations, nursing scientists, and community stakeholders on cost-benefit measures that can be used to meet society’s needs
• Preservation of dedicated and adequate funding for research unique to the profession of nursing
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About the Global Academy of Holistic Nursing, the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation,
and the American Holistic Nurses Association
The Global Academy of Holistic Nursing, a 501c (3) organization, contributes to and serves the global community by cultivating a network of holistic nursing scholars committed to social justice, expanding the role of transcultural integrative caring-healing processes within healthcare, and providing leadership in promoting and sustaining global health care transformation. Contact Helen Erickson at ed@gahnscholars.org

The American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation, a 501c (6) organization, was created to advance holistic, person-centered care that emphasizes clients as the experts of their own experience, and nurses as instruments of healing, by assuming full administrative authority and sole responsibility over credentialing programs based in the values, knowledge, and skills of Holistic Nursing. Contact Margaret Erickson at adminasst@ahncc.org.

The American Holistic Nurses Association, a 501c (3) organization, advances the profession of holistic nursing by providing continuing education in holistic nursing, helping to improve the health care workplace through the incorporation of the concepts of holistic nursing, educating professionals and the public about holistic nursing and integrative health care, and promoting research and scholarship in the field of holistic nursing. Contact Terri Janda at director@ahna.org .

Margaret Erickson
AHNCC
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